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Riccardo Muti, hip ailing, withdraws from February Chicago Symphony concerts

Submitted by on Feb 2, 2016 – 7:15 pm

Maestro Riccardo Muti shares a laugh with the orchestra during a January rehearsal in Taipei (Todd Rosenberg)

This Just In: The following is from a news release written by an arts organization.

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MUSIC DIRECTOR RICCARDO MUTI WITHDRAWS FROM FEBRUARY CONCERTS

CHICAGO — CSO Music Director Riccardo Muti is unable to conduct his February concerts in Chicago due to recovery from a hip operation that was needed following a minor accident.

The concert scheduled for February 19 at Holy Name Cathedral will be postponed with a new date to be announced.

A guest conductor or conductors for the CSO’s performances February 11-20 will also be announced at a later date.

Tickets for these performances are still available at cso.org, via phone at 312-294-3000, or in person at the Symphony Center box office, 220 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

[Editor’s note: The following concerts are affected:

Feb. 11, 12, 13 and 16: Muti was to conduct CSO principal clarinet Stephen Williamson in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, perhaps the greatest concerto written for this instrument. Also on the program, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String Orchestra and two evocative works of the 20th century — Arvo Pärt’s Orient & Occident and Ligeti’s Ramifications. 

Feb. 18, 19 and 20: Muti was to conduct an Italian-themed program highlighting Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and his Concerto Gregoriano, with concertmaster Robert Chen as soloist. Muti was also scheduled to perform Alfredo Casella’s Symphony No. 3, an all-but-forgotten work which had its world premiere with the Chicago Symphony under Frederick Stock in 1940. Casella is himself revered as a champion of another all-but-forgotten Italian composer, Antonio Vivaldi, the Baroque master who had fallen completely out of the repertoire in the early 20th century, until Casella devised an international festival in his honor.]

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